


Lakeside

by Mab (Mab_Browne)



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Community: sentinel_thurs, M/M, Post-Canon, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-29 02:17:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6354739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mab_Browne/pseuds/Mab
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>About six months after the end of the show, the guys take a weekend off to go fishing. Written for the Sentinel Thursday challenge prompt, 'twenty'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lakeside

While they were on the highway the bugs kept hitting the windscreen and smearing in thick, syrupy splats, but then they hit the back roads, and then the gravel, and then they came out through the woods into open pasture. There was a big log house, more beautiful than Jim had expected, even though he knew it was the owner’s residence. An office was clearly signposted, and Jim walked in, while Blair stayed in the truck, staring out across the lake.

There was a woman behind the counter, very small and preternaturally neat in her jeans and red fleece top. “Mr Ellison?” she asked with a bright smile. “Welcome to Saber Lake Resort.”

Jim nodded.

“If you could sign,” she said, and handed over the keys. “You’ve provided your own supplies?” she asked.

“That’s right,” Jim said. “We can stick to our own schedule and not bother anyone.”

The smile stayed on, alert and professionally friendly. “A lot of our guests do that. This brochure explains the boat hire. May I sight your fishing licence?” It was sighted. “Enjoy your stay – the weather forecast is gorgeous.”

Jim smiled back. “Yes, it is. Thanks.” He offered a small salute off the brim of his Jags cap and went back to the truck.

Blair gestured out at the view as he got behind the wheel.

“Wow,” Blair said. “This is spectacular, even for scenic Washington State.” His hand and his voice expressed his appreciation of the broad expanse of sparkling lake, the woods, the not so distant bluffs on the other side of the water.

“Good fishing too,” Jim told him, and turned left to drive about a hundred yards to the cabin they’d rented for the weekend. It was a log house too, but smaller. He parked, and Blair hopped out, staring at the cabin, before he looked back at Jim with a quizzical smile.

“How much did you unload for this little weekend getaway anyway?”

“More than a Super 8, less than the Hilton,” Jim said, and threw the smaller hold-all from the truck towards Blair. It was caught easily.

“Well, come on, man, open up the door. I can’t carry anything across the threshold if the place is still locked up.” 

Jim grabbed the cooler. “Keep your hair on, Chief.” He led the way up the wooden steps to the porch, with Blair maybe a little closer behind him that he might have been in the city. The cooler was placed on the porch boards, and the key turned in the lock.

“Why lock it up all the way out here?" Blair wondered, and then answered his own question to his satisfaction. “Symbolism. Security. Entering into your temporary kingdom.”

“Rural crime,” Jim said, and put the cooler on the counter in the little kitchen.

Blair just grinned at that. “Man, this a weekend break, I am not arresting anybody.” He took a look at the space around them – wood panelled walls, a log fire with a basket of pine cones set by it, two slightly overstuffed sofas, and a country-styled wooden dining set. “And the bedroom will be through… there,” he said, and walked through the door to dump the hold-all on one of the double beds.

Jim came up behind him and cupped his shoulders and drew Blair back against him. Blair settled with a small sigh, and said, “This is nice. I’m glad I paid for the gas and the food, though. I’d be feeling kind of like a kept man otherwise.”

Jim leaned down to kiss his temple. “Wait till your lawsuit comes through. About then I plan on being a kept man.”

Blair laughed, and detached himself only so that he could turn and plaster himself close again, arms curled around Jim’s waist. “Dream on. Dream on, Ellison.”

Temptation was there, right in his arms, the urge to herd Blair back towards the bed and kiss that impudent grin off him. But there were still bags and boxes to take out of the back of the truck. Jim ran his hands across Blair’s back in its woollen sweater and promised himself ‘later’. 

“You do the food, I’ll bring the rest of the gear in?”

“Sounds a fair division of labour,” Blair said, but waited just a moment to lean his face into Jim’s neck and sniff happily. Then he was gone, headed for the little kitchen space to put away their food – chicken (tonight’s meal) and the still not thawed steak that would be tomorrow’s dinner if their fishing failed. Jim didn’t think it would, but Blair had protested that there was no way he was taking any chances. There was coffee, bread, vegetables, eggs, plenty of food for a two day break; and there was Blair, smiling and finishing the work of relaxing that the drive up here had begun.

Jim relaxed too. The cabin was just right – luxurious compared to a tent, but not so flashy that it implied any particular effort to impress. He walked out to the porch and looked out at Saber Lake. “Want to try some shore fishing this evening?” he called to Blair.

“It is a fishing cabin,” Blair said. “It’s kind of early for dinner. Do you want to eat now or wait until it’ll be kind of late for dinner?”

“Why not wait until it’s just right for dinner?” Jim asked.

“Because this is you and fishing. Your one true love - after me. Once we start, you’re going to be casting that rod all evening.” Blair managed to make this sound remarkably dirty. He had a talent for that, or maybe Jim was more suggestible these days.

“Then let’s go fishing, Sandburg. I wouldn’t want to miss out on my second best love after we drove all the way here.”

“Yeah, sure.” So they walked down to the shore. The light was still bright even though their shadows on the grass and the lake shore stretched long and thin. A light, cool breeze came up, blowing Blair’s hair off his face. There was less of it now, cut in short waves that skimmed his collar, and Jim was nearly used to it. 

They fished. Blair got something on his line, but lost it. Jim caught a pike and let it go. He was eating trout, bass, or nothing. There was still chicken in the little kitchen in the cabin for tonight, after all.

Blair eventually slipped a companionable arm around his waist. “Come on, Jim. Tomorrow is another fishing day, and I’m getting hungry. I will even cook.”

“I’ll even eat it. Yeah, let’s finish for today.”

Blair made a simple stir fry. They ate, and sipped a couple of beers out on the porch before Blair declared that there was only so much that insect repellent could do for you and led them both back inside. Inside, he sat Jim down on one of the overstuffed blue sofas, and sucked him, before he climbed astride Jim’s lap and kissed Jim with an unexpected desperation while Jim worked him with his hand. Afterwards, he buried his face in Jim’s neck and stayed put. Jim put his arms tight around Blair’s waist and said nothing until Blair moved, which took a while. 

“Shower?”

“Probably not a bad idea.”

They puttered their way through the night time routines. 

“Thought as much,” Blair said, and turned over the blanket on top of the bed to show the ‘Made in China’ label.

“I don’t recall the advertising suggesting that they were authentic, Sandburg. Just providing decent facilities. Get into bed and get some sleep.”

Blair climbed in beside Jim. “Yeah,” he said drowsily. “A big day of fishing tomorrow. I am planning on fitting some more sex in there, though.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Jim said, and turned out the light.

~*~  
They took a boat out early the next day. Blair made some half-hearted complaint about the necessity of wearing life-jackets, a condition of the boat hire.

“I had this vision, man. You, shirtless, pulling away on the oars while I lounge at my leisure and enjoy the view.”

“I don’t see why you’re assuming that I wouldn’t have a few visions of my own. You rowing could be scenic too.” 

There was an unexpected sweetness at the base of the lechery in Blair’s smile. “But I’m established as the visual guy in this partnership. And I always did enjoy looking at you.”

Jim just shook his head and did the rowing, taking them three quarters across the stillness of the lake before they sat drifting on the water, taking their chances with their lines.

“You keep putting your hand in the water,” Blair said after a while. Softly, of course.

Jim nodded. “I know. It’s, ah, sort of an experiment.”

Blair practically went on point like a hound sensing game. “Like a sentinel experiment?”

“Yes, Sandburg, like a sentinel experiment. Sensing vibration, movement in the water.”

“Fish,” Blair said, with a broad, delighted smile.

“Second best love, after all,” Jim said. Whether it was the vibrations or his lure, Jim loaded a fine bass into the small cooler before the sun had grown too hot. Jim took them the remaining distance to the shore, and then there was a little Goofy Gophers routine (after you – no, after _you_ ) as they changed places so that Blair could row them back to the cabin side of the lake.

Jim watched him all the way back. Blair, established as the ‘visual’ partner? Who was the sentinel here, Jim thought, and took a good look at this man sharing the space of the boat with him, his bed, the spaces of his life now. Not tall, but strong, and the heightening sun played up the red glints in his hair, both the hair of his head and hair on his arms. He was surprisingly quiet on the way back across the lake, and Jim wondered if he was being a fool but did a different sort of fishing all the same.

“A penny for them, Chief.”

“They’re not worth a penny.” At Jim’s raised eyebrow, Blair said, “No, really. Thinking is for back in Cascade. This is just for being. With nature. With you.”

Jim made a small gesture with his hands. “That’s good. But… it was a bad case.”

Blair fixed him with a surprisingly steely glare. “They’re always bad cases. But this was a good idea, both of us taking a break.” The glare grew even more piercing. “Both of us, okay.”

Jim nodded. “Yeah, okay. Both of us. Shut up and think about your fish dinner, Ellison.”

“Exactly.” The rhythm of Blair’s rowing had slowed during their conversation, and Blair put more effort in. “There’s lemon. Salt and pepper. Some greens. A lunch fit for a king, right?” 

Jim grinned. “True. And maybe the loyal, rowing courtier might get a look in too.”

“Damn straight,” Blair said, and pulled at the oars just a little harder.

~*~

There was lunch. There was dinner. There was definitely sex, some of it even in the bed, with the scent and sounds of the lakeside evening filtering through the window screen.

Jim lay there, caught in pleasant glows – the loose pleasure of after sex, the way the shaded lamplight caught Blair’s skin in gold, the gentle peace of the night breeze and the noise of water wrapping their refuge around.

Blair turned to lie on his stomach, resting his chin on his hands.

“Tell me something.”

“You want a bed-time story, Chief?”

“I’m not going to strain your powers of invention. I just want the answer to a question.”

Potentially dangerous, especially from Blair Sandburg, but Jim smiled and ran his fingers through the curling waves of hair. “A little late at night for twenty questions, isn’t it?”

“It’s just one question, Jim not twenty.”

“It’s never one question with you, Chief.”

Blair stirred restlessly, but then settled again. “Shut up and listen, and then you can talk. When did you know? That this thing with us wasn’t platonic? That we could end up like this?” Blair ran a bent knuckled finger down Jim’s jaw.

“I don’t know. It wasn’t some road to Damascus thing, it just came on gradually. When the Chopec were in Cascade, I remember, you said something about getting off the roller coaster to ride on the merry go round for the rest of your life, and I remember that I really, really wanted the roller coaster to be me, and not just the sentinel study.” Blair nodded. “And it just… developed from there.”

“And you made a move,” Blair said, with a little smile. “Definitely a move.”

“Yeah. So I showed you mine. What about yours?” 

Amusingly, Blair looked disconcerted, as if it had never occurred to him that Jim would ask for a shared confidence.

“Well, I knew that I thought you were hot pretty much from the first moment I saw your chest in that consulting room. Going to bed with you? Sure, any time.”

“Except that it wasn’t any time. It took a while.”

Blair paused. “There were academic ethics there, Jim. I did have some - at the start anyway. But I started getting panicky after a while, and I thought, okay, obviously it’s time to detach with love, and that just made me worse, so epiphany time. After the Golden, maybe? And I couldn’t figure out how to stop you being the one that got away; how the hell you get people to stay with you.”

“And then you did figure it out.”

Blair looked stricken. “Are we talking about the press conference? Because no, no way, I didn’t mean it like that.”

And maybe you did. Jim thought it, but he made no comment on what he would have seen as a damning indirect confession in an interrogation room. “It’s okay Chief. We all need a kick in the pants sometimes.” 

“And that wasn’t what it was for, either.” Blair sounded sullen.

“Sandburg, I know.” Jim’s voice was sharp, and he gentled it. “I know.”

Blair nodded, and then shifted to lie closely alongside Jim, one strong arm looped around Jim’s waist. No catch and release here.

When Blair spoke again, his voice was soft with apology. “So, okay that conversation went weird places. You remember when you’d coach me about my relationships with women? God, I sucked then, and I don’t think I’ve improved much.”

“We’ve figured it out enough that we’re sleeping in the same bed in a fishing cabin somewhere. And having good sex.” That got Jim a laugh.

“And tomorrow we go back home and the day after that we go back to work.” Blair’s arm wrapped a little tighter. “It’s good work, Jim, but this, this is the best.”

Jim kissed him, and breathed in all the mixed scent of them in the bed. “See. You got all the important things figured out just fine.”


End file.
